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Friday, October 22, 2010

I was reading this amazing book called, " Praying Like Jesus" by James Mulholland and something he said really stopped me on my tracks. I guess I've always known we have too much "stuff" here in America, but I don't think I ever saw it as clearly as he put it on this book. I want to share a quote that comes from pages 75/76 of this book:

"If we were to shrink the world's population to 100 people, with all the ratios remaining the same, there would be 59 Asians, 15 Europeans, 9 South and Central Americans, 11 Africans, and 6 citizens of the United States and Canada. There would be 52 females and 48 males. Thirty people would be white and 70 would be of other races. Thirty would be Christians and 70 would be of other religions. Thirty would be able to read and 70 would not. Although we in the United States are only a small percentage of the world's population, we possess 59 percent of the world's wealth. If we have food in the refrigerator, clothes on our back, and a roof over our heads, then we are already richer than 75 percent of the world. Hot water, indoor plumbing, cars, televisions, telephones, and computers are extravagant luxuries in a world where five hundred million people are starving to death."

"In 1998, it was determined that it would take only thirteen billion dollars to eliminate starvation in the world. In 1999, the American church spent six billion dollars just on new buildings. How would the rest of the world react if they saw churches committing themselves to feeding the world instead of building luxurious sanctuaries, gyms, and family life centers?"

2 Corinthians 8:13"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality."(in reference to when Paul wrote to the church of Corinth about the poverty of the church in Jerusalem)